Attacks on facility time

Conference is concerned at this government’s concerted attacks on trade union facility time in the public sector. The United Kingdom has a proud tradition of progressing industrial relations through a joint approach with trade unions. Public sector employers recognise the worth of allocating facility time as a means of supporting trade union activists to fulfil […]

Local Government Funding Cuts

Conference is alarmed that many Councils have faced unprecedented reductions in Government grants since the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review. Since then, the position has deteriorated for local government with many councils now forecasting that central Government support over the six year period 2011-2017 will see reductions in excess of £100m. The December 2012 Autumn Statement […]

Demise of the state education system

Conference believes that this government is intent on dismantling state education in the same way they are dismantling our National Health Service. The views of support staff, parents and teachers are being ignored whilst the Coalition government’s Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, arrogantly decides that he has the freedom to overturn 150 years […]

Fighting Cuts and Privatisation – Highlighting ‘The Damage’ to our Communities and the Economy

Conference deplores the scale of the austerity cuts and the damage they are wreaking on local services and our members who work in them. Despite the high profile failures of privatised services, councils continue to outsource services to private sector organisations – either through ideology or because they believe the bogus claims that the private […]

Modern Apprentices in Local Government

This Conference notes that the recession is impacting on jobs in the public sector: full time permanent jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate as Councils and other public sector agencies deal with the impact of reducing budgets. Support is confirmed for UNISON policies aimed at resisting attacks on our members’ jobs, pay and service […]

Palestine

Conference reaffirms UNISON’s existing policy on Palestine with the following principal aims: 1)Israel to withdraw to the borders of 5 June 1967, demolish its Apartheid wall and remove all its settlements; 2)the right of Palestinians to establish a state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with its capital at Jerusalem; and, 3)the Palestinian […]

Analysis of Local Authority Budgets

Conference notes: 1)The impact of savage spending cuts in Local Government 2)The ongoing attacks on council services and the most vulnerable in our society by the Conservative led Government 3)The importance of UNISON fighting these cuts both locally and nationally 4)The importance of local branch knowledge in understanding the financial and budget setting decisions made […]

Affordable, safe, adequate, secure housing for all

Conference notes: 1)that the housing policies of the Tory led coalition government is leading to the cleansing of ordinary working people from London and other areas of high rents across the country; 2)this process was started by a local area housing allowance benefit cap which deliberately ignored actual rent levels. While the imposition of a […]

Regional and local pay threats

Conference notes with concern the continued attempts by the Coalition government at Westminster to break up national pay bargaining in the public services with attempts to introduce local and regional pay. Conference welcomes the fact that active campaigning has deterred some of the immediate threats through the pay review body system but threats remain, not […]

Pay

Conference condemns the prolonged public sector pay freeze that has drastically reduced the amount workers have received in recent years and now the punitive pay cap of 1% for two years from 2013. Conference also notes that many private companies and community/voluntary sector providers of public services have mirrored this freeze. On top of the […]

United Nations International Day of the Girl Child

This Conference welcomes the establishment of the United Nations International Day of the Girl Child, inaugurated this year on October 11 2012, and to be celebrated on October 11 every year thereafter. This Conference fully supports the aims of this event, i.e. to help galvanize worldwide enthusiasm for goals to better girls’ lives, providing an […]

Anti Abortion Groups

Conference is deeply disappointed that members of the anti-abortion group Abort67 have been found not guilty at Brighton Magistrates Court of public order offences for displaying material that is ‘threatening abusive or insulting’ outside the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) Wistons clinic in Brighton. South East Regional women’s group disagree with this ruling. If a […]

Universal Credit and its effect on Child Poverty

Conference is aware of the growing issue of child poverty. There are 3.6 million children in poverty in the UK today, that’s more than 1 in 4 of our children. Although the issue of child poverty affects working families, 90% of single parent families are women and are therefore more likely to be welfare dependant. […]

OVARIAN CANCER – THE SILENT KILLER

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer in women in the UK, affecting around 6,800 women. It is the highest gynaecological killer of women in the UK and the fourth most common cause of death from cancer in women, with two out of every three cases of ovarian cancer being diagnosed when the disease […]

Equal Rights for both Intended Parents in Surrogacy

Conference notes that despite surrogacy being legal in the United Kingdom the intended parents have few legal rights unless they happen to be male. An intended father can gain shared parental responsibility as soon as the child is born by the child being registered in his name, with him named on the birth certificate as […]